ProjectManagementOER

Change Management

Change is an inevitable aspect of organizational development. As organizations grow and evolve, there is a need to adapt and change by changing technology, creating new structures, changing physical attributes, adjusting business models or changing people. Organizational change refers to the actions in which a company or business alters a major component of its organization, such as its culture, the underlying technologies or infrastructure it uses to operate, or its internal processes. Almost all these changes are implemented in the form of projects: the change itself is a temporary endeavour which, when fully implemented, becomes part of the organizations operations.Change can be characetrized in a couple of different ways:

• Based on scope
  • Incremental/adaptive: small, incremental changes organizations adopt to address needs that evolve over time.
  • Transformational: Larger in scale and scope, involving major shifts in mission, strategy, structure, performance, and processes.
• Based on intentionality: Planned vs unplanned
• Based on source: Innovative vs imitative
• Based on order of change
  • First-order: Procedural modifications of how things are done. These can be implements with minor difficulty, quickly and can easily be reversed.
  • Second-order: Policy changes resulting in significant change. They are of moderate difficulty, can be implemented in medium term and are usually irreversible.
  • Thirs-order: Changes in governing values. These are very difficult, long-term changes that are usually irreversible. The PMI defined change management as: a comprehensive, cyclic, and structured approach for transitioning individuals, groups, and organizations from a current state to a future state with intended business benefits. Several key words should be noted in this definition.

Changes to Organization Culture

Organizational culture describes the set of values, beliefs, attitudes, systems, and rules that outline and influence employee behavior within an organization. The culture reflects how employees, customers, vendors, and stakeholders experience the organization and its brand. Organizational culture affects all aspects of a business, from punctuality and tone to contract terms and employee benefits. When workplace culture aligns with your employees, they’re more likely to feel more comfortable, supported, and valued. Culture is a key advantage when it comes to attracting talent and outperforming the competition.

When a change is focused on the organization’s culture, it is important to consider the following:

1. Match strategy and culture
2. Focus on a few critical shifts in behavior (as opposed to fixing everything in one go)
3. Honor the strengths of your existing culture
4. Integrate formal and informal interventions
5. Measure and monitor cultural evolution

Why Managers Fail to Get Results During Change?

Source: Longenecker, C., Neubert, M. J., & Fink. L. (2007). Causes and consequences of managerial failure in rapidly changing organizations. Business Horizons, 50(2), 145-155.

Top 10 Causes	Percent Citing the Cause	Consequences
Ineffective communication skills/practices	80%	Leaves employees uncertain and stressed, making it difficult to make informed business decisions
Poor work relationships and interpersonal skills	79%	Isolates managers from the informal network of knowledge that is necessary to cope with change
Person-job mismatch/skills gap	69%	Puts managers in positions in which they are ill equipped to deliver results
Failing to set clear direction/clarify performance expectations	61%	Hinders planning, saps motivation, and, ultimately, immobilizes staff
Delegation and empowerment breakdowns	56%	Contributes to confusion and frustration
Failing to break old habits and adapt	54%	Perpetuates behaviors and actions that no longer add value in the new work environment
Inability to develop cooperation/teamwork	51%	Destroys collective performance
Lack of personal integrity and trustworthiness	49%	Destroys a leader’s credibility with the people who are essential to getting results
Inability to lead/motivate others	45%	Leads to minimal performance at a time when change requires extra effort
Poor planning practices/reactionary behavior	44%	Creates disruptive crises that damage performance and morale

The Eight Constants of Change

1. Organizations change when the people within them change
2. Resistance is inevitable
3. Commitment to the past hinders change in the future
4. Connecting to the head and the heart builds commitment
5. A leader’s actions speak louder than words
6. Effective communication demands quality and quantity
7. People support what they help create
8. Sustaining change takes support and reinforcement

On the matter of resistance to change, this usually arises from:

• Broken promises
• Threat to identity
• Uncertain plans
• Cultural differences

Increasing Commitment to Change

Improving commitment takes time. One needs to raise awareness, understanding and belief in the change before there is action. Commitment to change is somewhat correlated with three factors:

1. The individual team member’s confidence in their own ability: Leaders can help by:
   • clarifying expectations
   • providing training
   • planning for early success
2. Team member’s confidence in organizational leaders: Leaders should:
   • exhibit appropriate skills
   • lead by example
   • demonstrate credibility
   • be well prepared and not overreact
3. Members attitudes toward change: Leaders should:
   • communicate intrinsic benefits
   • link to extrinsic rewards
   • select or promote for positive attitudes

Change Management Roles

Initiating Sponsor(s)

This is the person that has the power to initiate and authorize the change for all those affected.

Sustaining Sponsor(s)

The sustaining sponsor is the one with political and supervisory proximity to targets. Their role is to:

• Communicate change priorities and resource allocations
• Clarify roles in the change process
• Establish commitment and educate change agents
• Ensure the use of synergistic approaches in order to support and implement change effectively
• Provide the appropriate resources – logistical, financial and political – necessary to carry out a change project
• Assess and plan for the level of resistance and support expected from those affected by the change
• Use and reinforce effective change management skills throughout the change process

Change Agent

Change agents can help navigate resistance to change, communication of a change and its sustainment. A change agent, or agent of change, is someone who is responsible for implementing change. To achieve change management objectives, a change agent assumes responsibilities that start once leadership decides to undertake an initiative. An effective change agent serves a distinct role within a change initiative as a proponent of the change, as well as a conduit between leadership and the rest of the organization. Their role is to:

• Clarify and develop role responsibilities with key players
• Assess own skills and abilities as a change agent on an ongoing basis. Use this information to talk with sponsor(s) about your role and to further develop your skills.
• Assess the change project and, later, prepare an implementation plan. Be sure that they have communicated this plan to your sponsor(s) and that it has been agreed upon ahead of time.
• Implement and follow through on plan
• Educate and gain commitment from Impacted Stakeholders
• Facilitate ongoing feedback from Impacted Stakeholders and sponsors regarding progress and potential or real problems related to the change effort
• Provide all necessary resources and support
• Identify and manage resistance

There are three main types of change agents:

• People-centric: These change agents help boost employee morale and motivation. They help employees through a change and assist with goal setting, training and upskilling.
• Structure-centric: These agents focus on changing an organization’s infrastructure. They research and implement new technologies and perform systems analysis.
• Process-centric: These change agents focus on implementing new change processes and facilitating communication and cooperation among teams.

Advocate(s)

Advocates want to achieve change but need to enroll sponsors and change agents to achieve results. They need to:

• Define what they want to change and create criteria to measure success
• Identify key Impacted Stakeholders who must accommodate the change
• Clarify own role and the desired roles of others
• Identify and educate others who must support the change and gain their commitment
• Evaluate the required and the current skill level for managing change for each of the key players or groups
• Provide appropriate resources and support
• Utilize synergy and effective change management skills

Impacted Stakeholder/Target

This is the person that has to change something they do. They need to:

• Find out the reasons for change
• Discuss questions or concerns about the change with appropriate advocate(s), agent(s) and sponsor(s)
• Gain clarity about what is expected of them, how the change may affect their role(s), and any consequent management structure that may affect them
• How will the dynamics be affected by the change? Will they be able to influence change? How can they contribute to a synergistic process?
• Control their attitude – look at the glass as half full
• Look for the opportunities the change presents for them
• Take some ownership of the change

Models of Change in Organizations

Several frameworks have been developed to describe changes in organizations.

Kurt Lewin’s Model of Change

In this model, first the need for change is recognized. This happens usually as a result of issues and problems in operations or performance. Lewin describes that change happens in 3 phases:

1. Unfreeze
   • Recognize the need for change
   • Determine what needs to change
   • Encourage the replacement of old behaviors and attitudes
   • Ensure there is strong support from management
   • Manage and understand the doubts and concerns
2. Change
   • Plan the changes
   • Implement the changes
   • Help employees to learn new concept or points of view.
3. Refreeze
   • Reinforce and stabilize changes
   • Integrate changes into the normal way of doing things
   • Develop ways to sustain the change
   • Celebrate success

Of course, organizations are continuously undergoing changes. While this model conceptually helps us navigate a specific change, it assumes that only one change is happening at a time.

Kotter’s 8 Step Change Approach

Kotter proposed an 8 step approach to change:

1. Establish a sense of urgency
2. Build a powerful guiding coalition
3. Develop a vision for change
4. Communicate the vision
5. Remove obstacles
6. Generate short-term wins
7. Consolidate improvements
8. Embed changes into culture

These steps are very similar to Lewin’s model:

• 1,2,3 → unfreeze
• 4,5,6 –> Move
• 7,8 –> Refreeze

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) Model of Change

This model focuses on discovering the organization’s strengths and leveraging those to collaboratively design a positive future. After the purpose of the analysis is defined, a 4D cycle is followed:

1. Discovery: Identifying what works well right now: strengths, successes, peak experiences.
2. Dream: What could happend in the future? What is the future state we want?
3. Design: What structures and systems are needed for the desired future? What should the organization look like? and How do we get there? (the plan)
4. Destiny/Delivery: Implement the plan and create the envisioned future.

The Change Management 101TM Model

This model has 3 main steps:

1. Plan
   1. Assess needs
   2. Develop plan
2. Do
   1. Launch communications
   2. Transition work
3. Sustain
   1. Align structures
   2. Optimize results

Kübler-Ross Model (Response to Change)

This model, also known as five stages of grief, focuses on the pattern of emotional response of an individual to change. It describes the response in 5 chronological steps:

1. Denial: The first reaction is often shock and disbelief, as the individual may refuse to accept the reality of the situation.
2. Anger: Once denial fades, anger can surface, often directed at others, oneself, or the world.
3. Bargaining: This stage involves a need to regain control by making deals or promises, typically with a higher power, in an attempt to postpone the inevitable.
4. Depression: The reality of the change becomes more apparent, leading to feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and withdrawal.
5. Acceptance: This is the final stage where the individual comes to terms with the loss, not necessarily happily, but with a sense of peace and understanding. It is important to understand that the level of activity of an individual fluctuates throughout this process, with lower activity during the denial stage, a comparative increase during anger and bargaining, following by the lowest level of activity during depression, and an increase back to normal in acceptance.

The Change Life Cycle Framework

This is the model used by PMI to describe the life cycle of the change. Remember, change is about going from a current stage to a future state based on your organizational business strategy. The PMI describes this through a series of process groups:

1. Formulate change
   • Identify/clarify the need for change
   • Assess readiness for change
   • Delineate scope of change
2. Plan change
   • Define he change approach
   • Plan stakeholder engagement
   • Plan transition and integration
3. Implement change
   • Prepare organization for change
   • Mobilize stakeholders
   • Deliver project outputs
4. Manage transition
   • Transition outputs into business
   • Measure adoption rate and outcomes/benefits
   • Adjust plan to address discrepancies
5. Sustain change
   • Ongoing communication, consultation and representation of stakeholders
   • Conduct sensemaking activities
   • Measure benefits realization Usually transformational change follows these full processes, while adaptive change happens through feedback during a transformational change.

Bibliography

The following sources were also consulted in creating this resource:

• Chapter 16, OpenStax Organizational Behaviour
• Managing Change in Organizations: A Practice Guide, Project Management Institute, 2013
• What Is Organizational Change Management?
• What is a change agent (agent of change)?
• Change management: understanding the human dynamics of change
• Integrated change management
• What is organizational culture and how do you build it?
• Cultural change that sticks
• 7 Reasons Why Change Management Strategies Fail and How to Avoid Them
• Change Management Toolkit
• Improving outcomes through change management
• Organizational change management and projects
• Reactive project change management
• Managing change in organizations
• Culturally intelligent change management